Mayhew's Discourse and Higher Law

"So, here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what they knew was right...what they KNEW was right."
--Benjamin Franklin Gates (National Treasure)

Jonathan Mayhew was a Congregationalist minister in colonial Boston. He was an outspoken classical liberal who routinely integrated political views into his sermons. In 1750, he delivered a sermon titled A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers. The sermon was widely published in both colonial America and in England.

Mayhew's sermon vigorously espoused American rights. Colonists had a right to liberty, he argued, and a duty to resist and "throw off" (a term later borrowed by Jefferson) tyrannical government.

His argument was grounded in the idea that there was a Higher Law that superseded government law. Higher Law was similar to ancient Common Law. Common Law had evolved from two universal principles: 1) do what you agreed to to do, and 2) do not encroach on other people or their property.

The first principle is the basis of contract law. The second principle is the basis of essential prohibitions against theft, rape, murder, etc.

Mayhew's Higher Law argument resonated with colonial America because many colonists and their ancestors came to America to escape tyranny that had been trampling their Common Law, or natural, rights.

John Adams was among those who felt that the first shot of the American Revolution was not fired at Lexington in 1775, but by Jonathan Mayhew twenty five years prior in his Discourse.

The revolutionaries were doing what Mayhew argued was natural, justified, and predictable. They were enforcing Higher Law.